Abstract

As the Internet extends its global reach, language
can remain a barrier preventing people from being able to fully explore
material of interest. Tate Online, the Web site for Britain’s Tate
art galleries, serves as a good case study for exploring the issue of meeting
international site visitors’ multilingual needs. The site contains
a great deal of material that is of international interest; however, much
of this is currently accessible only in English. The present study used
a variety of methods to gather a set of requirements and recommendations
for providing enhanced multilingual content on Tate Online. These included
a competitor analysis, on-line survey of 457 Tate Online visitors, log file
analysis, machine translation resource evaluation, and basic user test.
Findings from this preliminary study provided information about users’ main
activities on Tate Online. They indicate that many individuals would appreciate
having more content available in their own language, either due to necessity
or out of preference. However, the best means of providing this content
depends on a variety of factors, including the pragmatic consideration of
resources available for translation. Insights gathered here can also apply
to other cultural heritage organizations looking to expand the amount of
multilingual material on their own Web sites. The means by which this is
accomplished may involve striking a balance between that which fulfills
site user needs and that which is feasible for the organisation to implement.

Introduction

Many international organisations with a web presence
recognise the need to offer multilingual content in order to reach a wider
and more diverse audience. For cultural heritage Web sites in particular, “the
audience for the material goes beyond linguistic and national boundaries,” so
the greater the audience reached, the greater the value of the site (Minerva
Project, 2005).

The World Wide Web is a useful tool for the dissemination
of cultural heritage-related material because it frees users from the constraints
of physical location, allowing them to access information from all over
the world. However, associated with this wide range of sources are language
barriers which may prevent people from being able to access or understand
the desired information.

To help address this issue, the MultiMatch project aims
to create a vertical search engine focused on the cultural heritage domain
that will, among other things, provide automatic query translation and cross-language
retrieval tools to help users search for and access content across language
boundaries. However, little is currently known about the multilingual abilities
and needs of individuals who are likely to access cultural heritage Web
sites.

Tate Online provides an excellent case study for expanding
knowledge on this topic because, as the official Web site for the UK’s
Tate art galleries, it is a popular and heavily-visited on-line resource
with global appeal. However, most of the site’s content is only available
in English, thus potentially excluding part of its would-be audience.

The aim of this study was to gather a set of requirements
for increasing multilingual access to Tate Online. Expanding the multilingual
content available on this (or any cultural heritage organisation’s)
Web site has the potential to benefit both site visitors and the organisation
itself. By considering both of these parties’ needs and desires, an
effective and mutually acceptable strategy for enhancing multilingual access
may be developed.

Languages and the Internet

Although the World Wide Web and the Internet can theoretically
be accessed by any person from any location at any time, in reality the
number of Internet users (and the languages spoken by these users) is not
equally distributed across the globe. This is a continuously evolving area:
for example, in 2000, 51% of all Internet users spoke English as a first
language (Graddol, 2006), but by 2007 this figure had decreased to 29% (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm).

Whether or not an individual possesses functional English
language abilities, research indicates that they will still prefer to operate
within their native language if the opportunity is available (Cleary, 2000.)
Therefore, it is increasingly evident that web users prefer to be addressed
in their native language (Eurescom Project, 2000), either because it is
necessary or because it is more comfortable.

With regards to language content of cultural heritage
sites in particular, a 2006 EU survey found that 97% of cultural
Web sites in the UK were monolingual English sites (Minerva Project, 2006).
Therefore, any organisation that offers multilingual content can differentiate
itself and thus obtain competitive advantage.

Translation Tools

Making multilingual content available on Tate Online
will inherently involve translation. However, the nature of the content
to be translated will determine the approach taken. There are a variety
of tools and resources that the Tate could use for its translation needs.

In general, it is widely accepted that trained human
translators should be responsible for translating permanent content that
will appear on the top-level pages (Eurescom, 2000) because permanently
displaying a flawed machine translation could detract from the overall prestige
and image of a site (Guyon, 2003). However, machine translation can be employed
in instances where it is considered acceptable for the reader to get the
main idea of the text, or for frequently-changing and updated content. Machine
translation may also be used for translating queries in a cross-language
information retrieval situation. Furthermore, it must be employed in cases
where pages are dynamically generated.

Cross-language information retrieval is a means by which
an individual can retrieve information in a language other than that which
is used to conduct the search. It incorporates both elements of machine
translation and traditional monolingual information retrieval techniques
(Clough & Sanderson, 2006), and there are a variety of processes by
which it may be implemented.

The Tate Galleries, Tate Online,
and Multilingualism: Background and Context

Tate Online is designed to entice people to physically
visit the galleries but it is also becoming an on-line destination in its
own right. In 2005, more people visited Tate Online than visited all four
of the offline galleries combined (Rellie, 2006).

Two primary goals for UK museums on-line in 2006 were
increasing audiences and improving access (ibid). One important way of achieving
this is to make Web site content available in many languages. The benefits
of doing so would extend to the Web site visitor but also to the Tate, as “the
localization of products and services based on an awareness of and response
to linguistic, cultural and technical differences is seen to bring a substantial
return on investment” (Parry & Arbach, 2005).

In its present state, Tate Online offers basic information
about planning a visit to each of its offline galleries in 12 different
languages. This information includes opening hours, directions to the galleries,
and other details that would be useful for prospective visitors to know.

As the Tate aims to increase the scope of its multilingual
content, the Collection section of the site has been identified by Tate
staff as the area of greatest interest for translation. It is composed of
various subsections: those which are most often used include Artist A-Z
(an alphabetical listing of all artists in the Collection along with biographical
information) and an illustrated glossary of art terms. Not only does it
represent the core of the galleries (the artworks), but it receives roughly
one-third of all site traffic.

Additionally, the Collection site offers the possibility
of searching Tate’s collection of artworks using either a controlled
vocabulary (“Subject search”) or a free text search for artist
name, artwork title, or subject.

Analysis of Multilingual Functionality
of Tate Online and Similar Sites

Tate Online is unique in that it is the only site dedicated
solely to providing information about the Tate galleries and their collections.
However, there are similar sites that can be classified into three groups:
other museums and galleries in London, other popular modern art museums
worldwide, and general art and culture-related sites. A summary of
their language offerings and multilingual functionalities can be seen in
Appendix A.

As a brief analysis reveals, there is a fair amount of
heterogeneity between the localisation approaches taken by the various sites.
Tate Online is similar to many of its London museum counterparts in terms
of structure and degree of multilingual content offered. However, the question
is whether it can or should expand upon this basic offering. One of Tate’s
distinguishing characteristics is the breadth of languages covered. However,
it will be burdensome to add an equal amount of new translated content:
completeness comes at the cost of linguistic diversity. Therefore, some
languages should be identified as priorities, and these will most likely
relate to the demographics of visitors that access the site most frequently.

Given that users of Tate Online who speak languages other
than English will be the audience that stands to benefit from increased
multilingual content, it was therefore logical to consider their needs and
involve them in the planning process. As a result, a user-centred design
approach was employed, which involved consulting actual site visitors and
using their input to evaluate a series of prototypes (Petrelli et al., 2006).
This approach can help create a design for an efficient, effective multilingual
Web site that is satisfying to use.

Different data collection techniques were used at each
stage to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. This approach, known
as triangulation, is advantageous because it enables one to build a holistic
view of the myriad issues at hand. Each technique yields information from
a certain perspective which can help to corroborate findings (Preece et
al., 2002).

Therefore, the first step in the process was to assess
user and usage needs or requirements. This was achieved through analysing
responses to an on-line questionnaire. Tate log file analysis also helped
to give an idea of the types of basic tasks and searches carried out on
Tate Online. An evaluation of machine translation resources was conducted
with bilingual individuals.

The results of these three investigations provided information on users,
their behaviours and their requirements. This information influenced preliminary
design ideas, following which a basic usability study was conducted with
native and non-native English speakers. This was all that was possible to
accomplish in the time available; however, results and observations from
all stages influenced and were incorporated into the final recommendations
for future design and testing.

Gathering User Requirements – User
Questionnaire

In order to ascertain user needs and requirements regarding
multilingual access to Tate Online, it was important to consult actual end-users
of the Web site. Areas of particular interest for investigation were:

User characteristics (where are international visitors
located and what languages do they prefer to use when surfing
the Internet?)

Task analysis (why do these visitors currently
use the Collection site,
and what do they do there?)

Requirements (what type of increased multilingual
functionalities do the site users need or want?)

However, it must also be noted that the end-users are
not the only ones whose needs must be considered throughout the
requirement-gathering process: “the concept of ‘user’ should
be defined to include everybody whose work is affected by the product in
some way” (Nielsen,
1993). Therefore, the Tate’s needs should also be taken into consideration,
and an important initial step in doing so was to assess:

Demand and feasibility (is there really a need
for more multilingual content on Tate Online, or do most users
possess adequate English-language skills to satisfactorily navigate the
site?)

To provide insight into these and other questions, a
questionnaire was designed to gather information regarding languages
spoken by Tate Online users and to assess their preferences in order to
prioritise the aspects and areas of the Collection site that could potentially
be translated.

Questionnaire Results

A total of 457 people responded to the questionnaire,
which was made available through two links on the Tate Web site. Based on
IP address, 31.2% of respondents were located outside of the UK, in 40 different
countries.

Language
skills

When users were asked which language they preferred to
use when searching and browsing the Internet, the top ten results were as
follows:

Language

Percent

Spanish

34.4

English

26.4

Italian

18.2

French

13.1

Portuguese

2.7

Dutch

1.3

German

0.9

Japanese

0.7

Turkish

0.4

Welsh

0.4

Table 1 – Preferred language

The predominance of Spanish, English, Italian, and French
is not surprising, given that these were the languages in which the survey
was available. Regarding self-reported secondary language skills, the percentages
of people who said they could perform at an intermediate level or above
in a foreign language were:

Language

Skill

Percentage

English

Reading

39.6

Writing

33.7

French

Reading

21.0

Writing

17.9

Spanish

Reading

11.8

Writing

9.2

Italian

Reading

10.9

Writing

8.5

Table 2 – Respondents’ foreign language
skills

The relatively high proportion of respondents with intermediate
or higher English language skills is not surprising, given that Tate Online’s
content is predominantly in English. What is unknown is the number of people
who would like to visit Tate Online but have been hindered from doing so
by a lack of English ability.

Uses of Collection Site

53% of respondents had visited the Collection site before.
Of these, 69% had done so out of personal interest, while 27% were motivated
by academic or research-related objectives.

Regarding primary objectives for using the Collection
site, roughly 60% of respondents used the site to browse the Tate’s
holdings without looking for something specific, or to prepare for a visit.
The relative frequencies of all tasks were:

Task

Percentage

To
browse what the gallery has (without looking for something
specific)

33.8

To
prepare for a visit

26.2

To
view or download an image of a work of art

10.0

To
look for information on a specific artist

8.6

To
look for information on a specific work of art that you
knew the name of

8.6

To
look for information on a specific work of art that you
DIDN’T know the name of

5.2

Other

4.3

To
look up the definition of an art-related term (glossary)

3.3

Table 3 – Primary objectives on Collection site

Respondents whose preferred language was not English
rated the amount of content currently available on Tate Online in their
preferred language as follows:

Response

Percentage

Fair
(more would be helpful)

40.3

Adequate
(no need for more)

27.1

Poor
(more is definitely necessary)

21.4

Not
sure

8.8

Too
much

2.4

Table 4 – Rating of amount of non-English content

Overall, 76.4% of those who did not prefer to view Web
sites in English stated that they would be more likely to visit the Collection
site if it were translated into their preferred language.

Areas of priority for translation

Area

Percentage

Artist
Biographies

35.9

General
instructions (i.e., how to use the subject search)

22.4

Search
(the ability to enter search terms in a language besides
English)

22.1

Glossary

18.1

Titles
of artworks

15.1

Categories
(in subject search)

12.4

Artist
names

7.6

Table 5 – Most important aspects of Collection
site to be translated

Most of the above areas (besides “Search” are
static content and thus could be translated manually; however, the problem
is the vast amount of potential content.)

Other revealing attitudes were expressed in the section
for general comments and suggestions. In general, people praised the English
version of Tate Online, while indicating they would appreciate the ability
to view the pages in different languages.

Justification for Translation

The results of the initial survey suggest that providing
more multilingual content would be appreciated by international users, some
of whom already expect such provisions from an institution of the Tate’s
caliber. Furthermore, it appears as though offering enhanced multilingual
content would attract more visitors to the Collection site and presumably
to Tate Online in general. Therefore, the value of doing so is reinforced;
however, the specifics of how and what to translate must be ascertained
in order to guide the design phase.

Quality of Translation Needs

The high degree to which the Collection site is used
out of personal interest suggests that professionally-done translation may
not be necessary; users may be satisfied with machine translations that
allow them to get the gist of the information.

However, one issue to consider regarding reported use
of the Collection site is the time period in which the data was collected
(during school summer holidays.) It is possible that this affected the results,
as presumably fewer people would be using the site for academic purposes.
It is possible that machine translation may not be acceptable for academic
research purposes depending on the level of information required.

Priorities and Implementation Issues

Regarding the most popular candidates for translation
(biographies, general instructions, and search) the means of translating
should be considered. Given the vast number of biographies (approximately
3,000) and the fact that the pages are all dynamically generated, it is
not feasible to provide human translations of everything. One possible compromise
could be to provide professional translations for biographies of the most
popular artists and then to provide a means for automatic translation of
the rest.

Task Analysis – Log file
Analysis

Another way to obtain information about what visitors
to Tate Online do whilst visiting the site is by examining the server log
files. An analysis of log files for one 24-hour period yielded some basic
data regarding the types of search queries entered and the aspects of the
Collection site which were the most visited. Although more in-depth and
long-term analysis of log files would be necessary to provide a more accurate
picture of overall use patterns, this 24-hour sample gave some insight into
what types of tasks are most typically performed.

Using the log file, it was also possible to extract search
queries entered into the Tate Online main page site search. Although these
were not specifically from the Collection site, they give a general idea
of some typical queries. Overall, 2010 queries were submitted in the 24
hour period, 933 of which were unique. Of these, only three were in a foreign
language. 85 of these unique queries were submitted five times or more,
and they can be classified as follows:

Category

Number
of queries

Percentage

Proper
names

49

57.6

Single
words

26

30.6

Phrases
(2+ words)

9

10.6

Name
and title

1

1.2

Table 6 – Search queries by category

With regards to the idea of query translation, a large
majority of searches conducted (i.e. most artist names and the single words)
would be unproblematic to automatically translate. However, the remaining
categories might cause some difficulties (i.e. proper names or phrases with
multiple meanings.)

It is difficult to ascertain whether the dearth of foreign
language searches exists because all users are able to formulate queries
in English, because people assume they cannot even try to enter foreign
language terms, or because foreign language speakers access their information
via a different route (i.e. navigating through the site pages.) In any case,
it does not appear as though creating a CLIR-based search functionality
for Tate Online should be a primary need, at least initially.

Design consideration - Machine
Translation Testing

Since not all content can be manually translated, one
option would to be to give users the possibility of using a MT system in
cases where a professional translation is not available. It may be that
when it comes to non-English content, having something is better than nothing,
and people will be happy with simply getting the gist of an automatic translation.

Possibly the easiest and cheapest way of producing an
instantaneous translation is to use an on-line resource to translate an
entire URL. Clearly, the advantage of this approach is that it is fast and
can accommodate several languages. Perhaps most importantly in the context
of the Collection, this method can be used to translate dynamic web pages
whereas other approaches (i.e. human translation or a software program)
cannot.

Most on-line MT systems are accessible by typing in a
URL or entering text at the system’s Web site. However, this requires
extra effort on the part of the user and interrupts the browsing experience.
A more user-friendly approach is to use a functionality provided by some
companies (SYSTRAN and WorldLingo) to obtain instant translations through
a language toolbar that can be added onto all desired pages.

In order to get a broader feel for general comprehensibility
and acceptability of MT output texts, it was necessary to survey a group
of bilingual individuals. Study participants were given a packet of texts
and questionnaires to read and complete. The texts were randomly selected
from the Tate Collection site: one was a painting description and the other
was an artist biography. These texts were translated into each participant’s
native language using one of two freely available MT systems (SYSTRAN system
and WorldLingo.) Also included in the packet were the original English texts;
participants were able to consult these if they wished but it was not mandatory.

Participants were asked to read the first translated
text and then to answer some questions evaluating its comprehensibility,
its acceptability, and its fidelity to the original (if applicable.) They
were also asked if they were able to learn something from the text and if
it would be a useful resource for writing an academic paper. This procedure
was then repeated for the second text.

System

Understanding

Acceptability

Fidelity
to original

SYSTRAN

4.00

2.80

3.61

WorldLingo

4.00

3.11

3.78

Table 7 – Mean ratings for the painting text (1
is the most positive, 5 is the most negative.)

System

Understanding

Acceptability

Fidelity
to original

SYSTRAN

4.10

3.00

3.94

WorldLingo

4.00

3.10

3.89

Table 8 – Mean ratings for the artist text (1
is the most positive, 5 is the most negative.)

If a mean rating of 3 or lower is considered to be the
minimum for MT to be valuable, then responses for categories (except acceptability)
did not meet this criterion. For both the painting and the biographical
text, acceptability received a lower (more favourable) mean ranking than
comprehensibility, suggesting that people were somewhat willing to accept
a text even if it was difficult to comprehend. Nonetheless, it must still
be noted that on average, respondents felt that both texts required “a
definite effort to understand the meaning.” Whether the use of free
online systems is an acceptable level of service for the Tate to provide
is certainly questionable. It is possible, however, that paid, “professional” machine
translation systems would provide higher quality output.

This brief exploratory study seems to correspond with
findings by Guyon (2003), which cast doubt on the benefits of providing
permanent machine-generated translation content on a Web site: if readers
perceive the texts as not being very serious, then the Web site’s
reputation could suffer.

Nonetheless, “even in contexts where automatic
translation is not currently feasible, other forms of computer support are
worth considering” (Connolly, 1996). These could include giving users
with moderately good language skills links to on-line dictionaries or thesauri,
which could provide fast and convenient means to help clarify unknown words.
The potential benefit of using “other” forms of support may
be investigated in the future.

User Testing

According to Nielsen (1996), “the ultimate international
usability engineering method is international user testing,” having
real users perform real tasks with the system without receiving help. User
testing was conducted to compare the performance of non-native and native
English speakers on the existing version of Tate Online.

In total, 14 participants aged between 16 and 35 took
part in the study. Seven of these were non-native English speakers who were
visiting Tate Modern. Seven native English speakers were chosen to serve
as a control group: three of them were recruited at Tate Modern and the
other four were British university students. Overall, this group had roughly
the same age and gender balance as the non-native English speaking group.

Participants were brought to a public access computer
room on the ground floor of Tate Modern. None of the participants were frequent
visitors to Tate Online; all had either never visited it before or done
so only once.

Following an initial site familiarisation period, participants
were given three tasks to perform, each of which was related to a specific
scenario. The first was to locate five paintings currently on display at
Tate Liverpool, the second was to find and read a description of an artwork,
and the third was to locate and read the biography of Francis Bacon. These
tasks were chosen to represent some typical browsing or free-searching behaviours
that site visitors might perform. Upon completing the three tasks, participants
filled out a short post-test questionnaire asking them to rate the difficulty
of using the Web site and also asking for any specific comments or suggestions
they may have had.

Quantitative measures taken included the number of tasks
unsuccessfully completed, the time elapsed before a participant either completed
a task or gave up, and the overall ranking of the Web site’s degree
of difficulty to use.

Group

Task
1 mean time (minutes)

Std.
dev.

Task
2 mean time (minutes)

Std.
dev.

Task
3 mean time (minutes)

Std.
dev.

Mean
difficulty rating

Std.
dev.

Non-English

4.031

2.417

2.617

2.400

2.446

2.542

3.14

1.952

English

2.257

0.956

1.184

1.373

0.631

0.606

3.00

1.915

Table 9 – Quantitative results from user test

Although these results were not significantly different
between the two groups at a level of p<.05, the differences in time taken
to complete the tasks is striking. Nevertheless, some participants in both
groups accomplished the tasks quickly and easily, while others required
more time. However, none of the native English speakers gave up before completing
any of the tasks, while some of the non-native English speakers did.

Qualitative results came from observing participants’ behaviours
and noting comments they made. Some general trends and common patterns of
difficulty became evident (for example, using the site search was often
problematic, as many of the top search results were irrelevant.) Some of
these problems affected all participants and were related to general site
design or structure.

Preferences

At the beginning of the study, participants were asked
what language they preferred to use when viewing Web sites. Six of them
mentioned their mother tongue (Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish/Galician,
Spanish) and one chose English.

At the end, when asked, “Given what you have experienced
here, would you prefer to use Tate Online in English or in another language?” nearly
half of these participants (three out of seven) indicated that they would
prefer to use Tate Online in English. It should be noted that these individuals
performed all of the tasks with very little difficulty. Therefore, it makes
sense that they would feel comfortable with the English site. The other
participants had more trouble with the tasks, and their preference to use
another language could indicate that they may have attributed part of their
struggle to language difficulties.

Participant Suggestions

The final question on the post-test survey was, “Do
you have any other suggestions or comments about how Tate Online can be
improved for people who speak languages besides English?” Suggestions
included:

(4 people) - Make it easier to find the other language
information (so people know it is possible to visit the site in other languages.)

(2 people) – More visible language buttons
on sub-sites too (not just the home page, since people may be
directed to Tate Online by a search engine.)

(1 person) – Have a home page in other
languages to help guide people to where they can find the information
they are looking for (even if the links lead to English-only sites)

(1 person) – Translate the Tate Online
home page

The user study was a valuable way to gather information
about paths people typically take to navigate and find information on Tate
Online, and to witness their pitfalls and frustrations (or lack thereof.)
However, it has its limitations due to the small number of participants
and the fact that Tate Modern visitors may not be a completely representative
sample of Tate Online users.

Therefore, testing with a wider range of people, particularly
those whose English is not particularly strong, would be necessary to provide
a more accurate picture of the degree to which such individuals have difficulty
using the Web site. Nonetheless, many of the observations noted and suggestions
made could help to make Tate Online more user- friendly for all visitors.

Summary of Key Findings

As previously stated, the objectives of the present study
were to investigate several different elements that could play a role in
influencing a strategy for enhancing multilingual access. Relevant findings
in these four areas will now be discussed.

Competitors

Many art and museum-related Web sites that are similar
to the Tate in content and scope have a roughly similar degree of foreign
language material available, and this is limited to visiting information.
It is clear that providing more content beyond this can be logistically
difficult and potentially expensive. These reasons in part are probably
why many organisations do not offer extensively localised sites at this
time, even if they would like to do so.

User Needs and Preferences

Clearly, some languages will be spoken by more site visitors
than others and will therefore be more of a priority than others. Therefore,
in choosing languages for added content, a good place to start would be
to focus on what are known as the FIGS languages: French, Italian, German,
and Spanish. These are typically rated the easiest languages for localisation
(Yunker, 2003), they were the most frequently featured across all the competitor
sites, and these four languages were also chosen when the Tate offered translated
content related to a past exhibition. In addition, many site and gallery
visitors speak these languages, into which Tate has already translated some
guidebook content.

The on-line survey, log file analysis, and 2004 visitor
survey all reinforce the fact that many people use Tate Online for general
browsing or for visiting information. Log file analysis and the user study
suggest that people very rarely type in specific artwork titles, so for
this reason, implementing a query translation system is probably not a top
priority.

Translation Resources

Most academic multilingual access research focuses on
localisation or the technical issues involved in creating more accurate
machine translation systems. However, the needs and interests of an organisation
like the Tate are more business- rather than research-based. The following
resources are most likely to be useful to the Tate:

Bilingual dictionaries (some users did take advantage
of the subject search; a bilingual dictionary could be used to
translate the words or short phrases in the controlled vocabulary.)

It may require further testing or evaluation to decide
if the benefits of providing instantaneous machine translations outweigh
the financial costs of doing so, and if the quality of the output is of
a high enough quality to be worthwhile. Alternatively, the Tate pages could
include a link to an external automatic translation site, thus making it
clear to the visitor that the sub-par automatic translations are not directly
associated with Tate Online. This could then potentially reduce the risk
of the translations having a detrimental effect on the Tate’s reputation.

Conclusion

Overall, it is likely that no matter which course of
action is pursued, the addition of any multilingual content beyond what
is currently provided will be welcomed by international visitors to Tate
Online. Some individuals will require such content in order to use the site,
while others will simply find it makes their experience more comfortable
and enjoyable.

The information obtained in the present study is a good
preliminary step in the development of a multilingual access strategy. Future
work progressing from this foundation may include the design and testing
of new interfaces, as well as a larger evaluation of translation resources
as they relate to Tate content, for example.

The implications of this study also extend beyond the
context of the Tate. For example, knowledge about the characteristics of
common queries in an art-specific domain can help to inform the design of
effective focused translation systems. More broadly, the findings of this
study can be applied to the MultiMatch project (or any cultural heritage
Web site with a global scope) by reinforcing the notion that the provision
of multilingual access and support would be welcomed by people who wish
to interact with content in languages they do not speak fluently. It may
also need to be customizable in order to cater to varying levels of language
proficiency and different media types.

The Tate is an internationally renowned organisation
that has a great deal to share with the world. Increasing multilingual access
to this (or any other cultural heritage) collection means that more people
can take advantage of the extensive and unique resources offered. However,
as the present case study has revealed, the means by and degree to which
such multilingual support can be provided will ultimately depend on the
financial, technological, and human resources available to a Web site’s
creators.

Acknowledgements

Work partially supported
by European Community under the Information Society Technologies (IST)
programme of the 6th FP for RTD - project MultiMATCH contract IST-033104.
The authors are solely responsible for the content of this paper. It does
not represent the opinion of the European Community, and the European
Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of data appearing
therein.

References

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